DATE: Thursday, November 6, 1997            TAG: 9711060471

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   50 lines

MAN ABDUCTED, SHOT TO DEATH ROBBERS FORCE WAY INTO HOME IN DEEP CREEK CAPTIVE SLAIN WHEN HE TRIES TO JUMP FROM CAR

A man who was robbed and forced from his home at gunpoint was shot and killed Wednesday night when he tried to escape his captors by jumping from a moving car.

Dwight Steinruck Jr., 25, of the 3700 block of S. Military Highway, was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Police spokesman Dave Hughes said two men knocked on the door of a home at Travelers Mobile Home Park in Deep Creek near the Interstate 64 interchange about 8 p.m. Steinruck and his mother were alone in the home.

Steinruck answered the door and was confronted by the men, one of them armed with a gun. The men forced their way in, Hughes said, and demanded money.

Steinruck gave the men an undisclosed amount of cash, but instead of leaving, one of the men asked him if he had a bank account.

When Steinruck said he had an account at a bank in the Greenbrier area, the men took him to his car at gunpoint, apparently intending to have him withdraw money from an automated teller machine at his bank. The robbers made the victim get behind the steering wheel.

As soon as the men left, Steinruck's mother called 911.

Minutes later, a police officer on patrol near South Military and George Washington highways heard a gunshot.

Hughes said the officer saw a man dropping from the driver's side door of a car. The car then sped off.

The officer went to the man's aid and called for help while passing on information about the car she had seen.

That, plus information from the victim's mother, was relayed to police throughout the region.

The car was described as a white, 1990 two-door Honda Prelude with Virginia license tags ZHM-9247.

Hughes said it was not immediately clear whether the robbers knew their victim or whether they had picked his residence at random.

A motorist who was driving near the victim's car when the shooting occurred told police that he saw only the victim in the driver's seat and one other man in the front passenger seat.

``We don't know if the other suspect was laying down in the back seat or what,'' Hughes said. ``The suspect got in the driver's seat and took off. It all happened really fast.''

The one suspect was described only as black and wearing a blue, hooded sweatshirt.

A complete description of the suspects was not available late Wednesday. KEYWORDS: ABDUCTION MURDER SHOOTING ROBBERY

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